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| Going into the main bend of the Roy Hesketh circuit in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, circa 1953. |
Soldiers arrive with the first cases “Spanish Flu”, a deadly strain of the H1N1 influenza virus, in Durban. Also known as the Great Flu, this strain of H1N1 caused a fatal over-reaction in adults’ immune systems, whose deaths often left destitute young and aged dependents whose immune systems had weaker reactions. Thus the 1918 flu caused the death of an estimated 50 to 100 million people worldwide.
June 1925
Zulu Prince Solomon met the British heir apparent, Edward, Prince of Wales.
29 October 1929
Share prices on the New York Stock Exchange collapse, starting the Big Depression.
4 March 1933
Zulu prince Solomon dies.
August 1945
America drops atom bombs on the cities of Horishima and Nagasaki.
1 September 1939
The second World War starts with Germany invading Poland.
December 1951
Prince Solomon's son Cyprian Bhekuzulu kaSolomon is officially recognised as the Paramount Chief of the Zulu people
1952
Construction begins on the Roy Hesketh race track in Hayfields, Pietermaritzburg, to host international races from 1953 to the track’s closure in 1981.
1953
Prince Mangasuthu Buthelezi elected to the tribal constituency of Mahlabathini.
Distell launches Mainstay Cane Spirit, as first distilled from fermented molasses by indentured Indian labourers KwaZulu-Natal, to the shebeen market, but the five-times distilled spirit quickly grows into the only drink that sold over 15 million litres per year across South Africa in the 1980s.
October 1955
Zululand is established and land is returned to the Zulus. This had nothing to do with the sales of Mainstay.
1960 The University College of Zululand is established as a constituent college academically affiliated to the University of South Africa.
1960 The 6-km long, twin railway Cedara Tunnels are opened. They remain the longest tunnels in South Africa until 1989, when Tunnel 4 on the Hex River pass was opened.
1961
The first cases of dog rabies is diagnosed in KwaZulu-Natal, a province which had previously been free of the disease.
September 1968
Zulu king Cyprian Bhekuzulu kaSolomon dies. That comes from occasionaly drinking gin.
20 July 1969
The American space craft Apollo II lands on the moon and Neil Armstrong leaves the first human shoe prints in the moon dust.
4 December 1971
Goodwill Zwelithini crowned as king of the Zulu nation.
1975
Prime Minister Mangasuthu Buthelezi reforms Inkatha kaZulu, which later becomes the Inkatha Freedom Party. Mainstay flows freely.
February 1976
South Africa’s longest running car show starts with the first Cars in the Park in Alexandra Park in Pietermaritzburg, attracting the smallest crows to date of 12,000 people.
1980
The wall of the Sterkfontein Dam, originally commissioned in 1977, is raised to 93 metres with a crest length of 3060 metres, to contain 17 million cubic metres of water when full, making this South Africa’s largest dam wall.
To put this volume of slightly acidic, highly dangerous di-hydro oxide into perspective, its almost as much Mainstay as Distell sold in the hot summer of 1984.
1985
Westville campus of the University of KZN pioneer electric vehicle experiments using a Ford bakkie which research grew into the several hybrid diesel-electric vehicles used in the military.
11 February 1990
Nelson Mandela is released from Pollsmoor Prison.
March 1990
The first Splashy Fen is held near Underberg, starting South Africa’s longest running music festivals, as well as its longest-lasting eclectic folk band, the Hairy Legged Lentil Eaters. Their blood is pure Mainstay. (See coelacanth.)
27 April 1994
South Africans queue in long lines for the first democratic vote. Sales of Mainstay start to fall. Despite some arguing it’s a vodka, it really is a white rum, after all.
10 May 1994
Nelson Mandela is sworn in as South Africa’s first democratically elected president.
24 June 1995
Francois Pienaar leads the Springboks to a 15-12 victory against the All Blacks in the final of the Rugby World Cup at Ellispark. They allege to have poeped themselves.
31 August 1997
Princess Diana dies in a high speed vehicle crash in a tunnel in Paris.
14 June 1999
The ANC’s Thabo Mbeki is sworn in as president of South Africa. There’s nary a drop of Mainstay, just bottles with variously coloured labels of Johnny Walker. Coincidence?
2 November 1999
The N3 Toll Concession (N3TC) entered into a 30-year concession contract with the South African Roads Agency to build, finance and maintain the N3 from the Cedara near Hilton to the Heidelberg South interchange in Gauteng.
2000
The prehistoric coelacanth fish was found to be flourishing in deep canyons off the Sodwana Bay section of the iSimangaliso park, sparking a niche tourism diving market. Speculation is that the prehistoric fish’s longevity is due to a blood type very similar in molecular structure to Mainstay.
11 September 2001
The World Trade Centre implodes after two planes fly into it, killing 1000s and causing decades of misery for all fliers thereafter as airport security start confiscating nail files and perfume bottles.
2002 The former “bush college” grows into the University of Zululand includes outcomes-based programmes in its curriculum and attracts students from all over Africa.
March 2004
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases confirms a young Zulu woman, from Vulindlela in KwaZulu-Natal, known only as CAP256, has been producing antibodies that successfully quelled the AIDS virus in her blood.
20 October 2007
The Springboks win the Rugby World Cup, beating England 15-6. No prizes for guessing the secret sauce, but it is the, ahem, mainstay in KZN’s prowess.
9 May 2009
Following internal revolution in the ANC, factions led by among others, Julius Malema, side against Thabo Mbeki to make Jacob Zuma South Africa’s president. Juju has taken to blaming Mainstay for this lapse.
11 September 2009
An 11-month-old carrier pigeon called Winston easily beats Telkom’s ADSL line in a race from Howick to Durban, delivering a 4 gig memory stick in 68 minutes. Uploading the data took an hour, by which time the then copper based ADSL line had sent only 4% of the data.
1 May 2010,
King Shaka International airport opens, just in time for the kick-off of start of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in June.
11 March 2011
An quake measuring 9 on the Richter scale causes a tsunami that destroys the north east of Japan. Almost 16000 people die.
31 July 2012
The relatively unknown Chad Le Clos beats the American world champion Michael Phelps in the 200m backstroke at the London Olympics. Chad said “with Mainstay, I can even beat Arnie.”
6 December 2013
Nelson Mandela’s death if officially announced. South Africa to narrowly miss out on having a former president kept alive as a zombie for two years running.
27 January 2014 the world's largest passenger aircraft, an Airbus A380-800 of British Airways landed at KSIA becoming the first A380 to do so. The aircraft was being used for training and operated many flights in and out of the airport until 4 February 2014. BA denied rumours that the giant craft was especially flown in to load up on Mainstay for prince William, who learned to like the tipple in Lesotho.
October 2015
The solar team teams from UKZN and the North West (NWU) are the first teams from Africa to compete in this biennial solar race in Australia. They were not allowed to take Mainstay, as result took the wrong decision to fix a flat tyre, and lost to NWU.
